


When in Trouble, Call Horace.

by laurayourexpectations



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Auror!James, Auror!Sirius, Domestic Fluff, F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Fluff and Smut, Humor, Librarian!Remus - Freeform, M/M, Professor!Lily, Professor!Severus, Remus is now a Librarian, Severus and Remus were friends, Sirius is a very big dog, Smut, Swearing, jily, or dawg, wolfstar
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-06-03
Updated: 2018-06-03
Packaged: 2019-05-17 22:38:22
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,530
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14840519
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/laurayourexpectations/pseuds/laurayourexpectations
Summary: Remus Lupin gave up his life in the magical world after not being able to find any jobs that'd take a werewolf. Living his not-so-comfortable muggle life, something, in the middle of a song makes his life change forever—for the good, or for the bad. Maybe he should just call Horace?





	When in Trouble, Call Horace.

            Remus hates the tube. Everything about it. Maybe it’s the fact that the annoying muggle from his workplace goes with him, (which was kind of Remus’ fault, considering he needed an explanation as to how he gets to work, and ‘aparatating’ wasn’t an acceptable one) because, of course, considering Remus’ luck, the muggle lives in the same neighborhood and _insists_ on going. Or maybe it’s how the place smells disgusting – and Remus, being really sensitive to odors, doesn’t really appreciate it. There’s also the unbearable amount of people brushing against him. The underground really doesn’t suit Remus Lupin.

            Stopping to think of it there wasn’t much that suited Remus Lupin in his ordinary, muggle, _fake_ life. He absolutely hated his little apartment and the way it shook every time the train passed by. He hated the clothes and how they felt itchy against his chest. He despised his job as a librarian. Everything about it. However, there wasn’t much Remus would be able to do about it. Remus couldn’t find his own place in the magical world. Being a werewolf was too difficult. And, even though Remus loves challenges, going to prison was not one of them.

            After a long paper Remus had to write by hand, he decided to take a look at the _Prophet._ Old habits die hard. He looked through the pages carefully but quickly. Searching for key-words to something he might find interesting. It took a couple of minutes, but something had caught his eye.

 

**_The New “Borealis”: Does it Have an Antidote?_ **

_The magical world is now in crisis. After the sudden disappearance of  You-Know-Who, one year of  not having complete chaos ruling the land of London, we thought the times of fright might have finally ended, however, our sources say that in the Ministry of Magic’s Healing department a new crisis has arisen: a spell that creates a disease so powerful, no healer has been able to identify or cure. The Minister of Magic hasn’t placed his opinion on the matter still._

_Doc. Parsley, the inventor of the Funinculus Antidote, has a few words on the matter: “It’s strange to find something so complicated,” says Parsley, “we tried everything we could, but nothing seemed to stop it. We’ve been trying the most recent methods of healing, as well as the old ones. We haven’t found it to be lethal, but it sure isn’t innocent.” Nothing else was said about the disease, but we’ve searched further. The disease’s name - or nickname - given by the people resembles the colorful wonder known as Aurora Borealis. We’ve managed to find the complete list of the symptoms of what people are calling ‘The Borealis Disease’:_

_\- Abnormal loss of blood from the wound._

_-Colorful appearance and aura around said blood._

_-Loss of consciousness_

_-Uncontrollable magic_

_These are the symptoms found so far. The magical wound is treatable, according to our sources. With normal healing spells and potions, one is capable to ease the pain and heal the wound temporarily. But there’s still no antidote._

_Is it the new death crisis of our final time of peace? We’ll see, but as for now, the only thing we know is: This disease is not innocent._

 

            Sighing, Remus gathered the things he needed to bring home (a bunch of papers and forms he needed to finish later, so he wouldn’t miss the _fucking_ train), when someone – or something, he never knows – knocked on his door. Opening it, Remus could see the little drops of sweat running down Horace’s forehead and how breathless the poor ignorant seemed to be, so he stopped what he was doing to pay attention.

 

            “What’s the matter, Horace?” He asked, voice soft and worried.

 

            “I’m sorry, mate,” Remus wanted to let out a sigh. “I won’t be able to get home with ya tonight.” Remus had to hide his obvious joy. “Susan asked me to pick up the kids and get some groceries. We’re having people over tonight.”

 

            “Oh...” even though happiness filled his chest with the sudden news, Remus still had to fake a little disappointment. He sat back on the chair with a huge ‘bumf’ and placed his hand on his forehead, realizing it was _way too much drama_ as he saw the look of complete terror that took over Horace’s face. He cleared his throat and smiled. “It’s completely okay, Horace.”

 

            “Is it?” The muggle asked, getting into the office and closing the door. He crossed his arms over the ketchup stained tie and tried his best to look serious. “You know - Remus, I’ve never seen you with - anybody.” He said, still trying to catch his breath.

 

            The question took Remus by surprise. “What do you mean?”

 

            “You’re in your twenties and you live alone, but I’ve never seen you with any friends or a – a girlfriend. And the only person in the whole building you talk to is me.” _Because you’re easy to predict._ Remus wanted to say. _And because everyone here’s boring._ “And I’m piratically two decades older than you.”

 

            “Well, Horace, if you haven’t already noticed, I’m not the talkative type.”

 

            “Yeah, but, like- don’t ya have friends from college or somethin’?” Remus looked down and sighed loudly.

 

            “Yes, Horace. But I don’t have time for that now.” _Or because almost all of them didn’t really talk anymore._ “Is there anything else you need?”

 

            “I’m just worried ‘bout ya, mate.” Remus got up from his chair and walked towards the man.

 

            “Thanks, Horace.” He placed a hand on the muggle’s back, hitting it a couple of times. “But I can assure you _I’m fine_.” Horace looked at him and smiled.

 

            “You don’t look fine, Remus. You look _lonely_.” The man turned around and opened the door. Remus grabbed it by the edges and kept looking at Horace, trying to figure out how such an ignorant man could be so wise. “That’s why I take the tube with ya, you know?” Remus shook his head. “The first time you came here you looked so lost. When I heard you were the new assistant manager I decided to try and talk to you and well...You and I share a neighborhood, so I thought _why not_?” Remus was wide-eyed. He thought all along that being friends with Horace was something he himself had decided to do - for survival, of course. “There’s… something about you, Remus.” The man pointed at him, shaking his finger a couple of times and then dissipated down the hallway. Remus closed his door.

 

_Lonely, huh?_

 

            Remus sat back on his chair and gazed at the door for a while. Maybe that’s the reason being in this _completely boring_ world annoyed him so much. Maybe if he had a friend or a girlfriend – bullshit. It was obviously not that. Remus had been alone his entire life. He got used to it pretty quickly. So why would it bother him? Of course, it wouldn’t.

 

            Remus sighed and decided he didn’t really need to care if some idiot muggle found him lonely or not. Actually, lonely might be the best thing he’d heard someone say about him in the last month and a half. The ministry managed to send him letters once a week, making sure to explicitly say how horrifying and sad his condition is, but that he couldn’t possibly live among muggles. What would happen every full moon? What if someone saw him transform or perform magic?

            In his defense, Remus never really saw a wizard worried about such things. Magic had been seen a million times by now. Who could possibly believe a muggle who saw something like that?

 

            _Lonely wasn’t so bad when he thought of what had happened to him ever since he graduated._

            It took about two hours for Remus to finish his paperwork. His eyes were red from scratching and he yawned every minute. It was enough. He could finish the last additions in the morning. He took a glance at his wristwatch and his eyes went wide, _ten thirty._ Shit. He shoved everything he could in his messenger bag, making sure to grab his keys and phone (Which was actually a really good muggle invention. He really liked the iBook’s app) and headed out the door. He might’ve been the last person on the building if not for Burt, the janitor. He ran out of the library and smiled at Burt on his way.

 

            There was a very cozy kind of alley next to the library building Remus liked to use for spells. He wasn’t really afraid of muggles seeing him perform magic, but he didn’t want to piss off the ministry more than he already had. It was raining, but Remus didn’t care about it enough to conjure an umbrella. He ran down the stairs and entered the alley. He looked around the busy streets of London, watching the people walking straight forward, holding umbrellas. No one was looking. He looked around the alley and breathed in deeply. Remus closed his eyes, ready for aparatating. Nothing happened. Remus opened his eyes again, an expression of complete confusion took over his face – he tried once more. Nothing. Remus opened his eyes again and whispered “Aparatate!” Nothing. What the shit? He’d done that spell almost every day, and it worked completely fine! “APARATATE!” He screamed, bringing attention from the people on the street. He smiled awkwardly at them. Shit.

 

            Remus thought for a second that maybe something was wrong with his magic. Maybe the ministry had gotten a little bit _too_ pissed with him. Shaking his head, Remus sighed. “There’s nothing wrong with your magic.” He muttered to himself. “Chill, Remus.” The werewolf left the alley and his eyebrows furrowed. He’d lost the last train, it left about two hours ago. Maybe a cab? He looked around. With that rain, everyone would be taking cabs. Walk? It wasn’t that far, in about one hour he’d be home. “Walking it is.” He sighed to himself. With his abilities to aparatate gone, Remus didn’t even try to conjure an umbrella – instead, he ran back into the library and was happy to find a forgotten one in the umbrella bin. He could bring it back tomorrow morning.

 

            Remus was calmly listening to some music on his phone as he walked. He’d gotten into muggle music at the beginning of the year when some girl at his job had a birthday party in a pub, and they played some music live. It was very similar to wizard bands like The Dark Elves or Weeping Willows. He didn’t really have a favourite band, it was more of a mixture of classical music (Remus rather liked the orchestra), some Queen, David Bowie and the occasional pop – turns out he actually likes some Taylor Swift now and then.

 

 Almost Halfway home, in the middle of “Love of My Life” from Queen, he spotted what looked like a dog (a very, very big dog), down the road, laying down next to the trees from a park nearby. Remus stopped in his tracks. Is that _blood_?

 

            One of his earbuds fell down his ear when he ran towards the woods, his brown oxford shoes completely ruined by the wet dirt and rain, but the song kept playing on his ears, making Remus a little bit annoyed. He got closer and the sight frightened him more than he thought.

 

            _It was a dog. A huge, black dog. With a dark pool of blood around him, and a very apparent wound on his belly._

 

Remus placed a hand on his mouth. The dog was bleeding horribly. The blood ran down the grass, red and dark and _so much blood._ Remus couldn’t just leave it like this. He took out his wand from his bag and pointed at the dog. “Vulnera Sanentur!” He screamed. Nothing happened. Remus could start crying from frustration. “ _Vulnera Sanentur!_ ” He said once more, tears falling down his face. Remus rushed a hand through his hair, his breathing shaky. What was happening? Why couldn’t he perform any sort of spell?

 

            Remus looked at the dog again. Fuck. He took off his scarf and placed on the dog’s wound, applying pressure on it carefully with one hand – with the other, he called Horace. He didn’t really know who else to call in a time like this. Normally, a simple spell would be enough, _but for some reason that wasn’t an option._ “Hello?!” He screamed when Horace picked up. “Horace! Thank mer- god!”

 

            “What is it? What’s happening?” Horace sounded completely terrified.

 

            “I-I found-” Remus cleared his throat, looking at the dog. “I’m in that park near the bakery you like! There’s a dog, a huge dog, he’s hurt -” Remus was choking down the tears. “He’s been hurt, I don’t know how or what to do, I-”

 

            “Okay, calm down!” Horace screamed through the phone. “I’m gonna get Susan’s car and come down there. We’ll take it to a hospital.” Remus sighed, his breathing shaky once more. “Oi, calm down. I’m coming to ya.”

 

            “Alright.”  Remus breathed in harshly. “Thank you, Horace.”

 

            “Ya welcome, mate.” Remus ended the call.

 

         Without really looking at the wound, Remus carefully placed the dog’s head onto his lap, still applying pressure to the cut, he used his other hand to pet the dog’s fur carefully, whispering sweet tones to it – not really knowing if the words were directed to the dog or to himself.

 

            It took a couple of minutes, but Remus looked around and realized. This wasn’t a normal wound. _Oh no_. The wound was shining like it had a colorful aura around it. This enormous quantity of blood couldn’t be normal, the wound didn’t seem so bad, after all. This was a magical wound. The scarf that once was a light shade of grey, instead of looking red with the blood, was changing colors completely, going from blue to bright pink to green in a couple of seconds. Remus’s eyes went wide. It was The Borealis Disease. Shit. Shit. Shit.

 

            _Why would someone hurt a dog?_

 

            Remus’ head shot to the side when he heard a car horn in the distance. Coming out of the car was Horace, rushing towards Remus with a huge blanket and an umbrella. Remus didn’t know what to do. Horace couldn’t see the wound nor the scarf. Remus couldn’t perform any magic. _How the fuck would he be able to hide the whole rainbow thing from the muggle?_

 

“Sorry for the delay,” Horace said, breathing heavily. “Susan couldn’t find a blanket” _Yes. The blanket. Perfect._ “It is really-” Horace was leaning down to see the wound but Remus was quicker: he grabbed the blanket from Horace’s hands and covered the wound and almost all of the dog.

 

            “Sorry, we have no time for a chit-chat,” Remus said, his tone screamed angry and demanding, but his voice was choked up and shaky. _Fucking Borealis Disease._ “We have to go.” Remus grabbed the upper half of the dog, careful not to show Horace the wound.

 

            “Sure thing, mate.” Horace sounded scared, but definitely not as scared as Remus. The fat man leaned down and took the other half of the dog with shaky hands, his way-too-small pair of glasses sliding down his nose. With a couple of groans, both men picked up the dog (that looked way lighter than he actually was, in Remus’ defense) and walked towards the car.

 

            By the time they’d placed the dog in the backseat, Remus was completely covered in blood but sat down in the front seat anyhow. Eyes closed, his breathing shaky and heavy like it had been for the past half hour. It was only when Remus was calming down that Horace asked: “Can ya put this address on the GPS, mate? Thanks.” Handing Remus a piece of paper, _VET HOSPITAL_ was written in terrible handwriting. Remus felt something rushing up his spine.

 

            “I’ll take it home.” Said Remus, calmly.

 

            “Home? Isn’t it hurt?” Horace asked, taking a turn.  _No, Horace, the blood is fake! Happy Halloween!_

 

            “I-” Remus had to think fast, but he’d found a way to hit two birds with one stone. “I called a, a-   _friend_ of mine, he’s a veterinarian.” He saw from the corner of his eye what looked like a soft smile on Horace’s face. “I just thought it’d be quicker.”

 

            “It might be, yeah,” The muggle agreed. “at this time, the traffic should be bloody terrible!” Remus let out a huge breath. Horace seemed convinced enough. Remus placed a hand over his mouth, sighing. _He didn’t have veterinarian friend! He didn’t have a **friend** for that matter! _

 

            Horace took a u-turn and got in the way to Remus’ small apartment. The whole trip was completely silent, however, Remus’ head was anything but quiet. He couldn’t help himself but think about everything that was happening. Why the _fuck_ couldn’t he use magic? He’d never had any troubles with simple spells like these before. He’d never had trouble with magic at all!

 

            Even though Remus had been placed in Gryffindor, he wasn’t as extroverted as the others. He had one friend for the whole 8 years in the school. His name was Severus Snape – and because of the whole Slytherin vs. Gryffindor thing, they didn’t meet much throughout the years. They’d normally find a cozy place in the library and talk about homework. Sometimes, they’d have study dates or they’d grab a butterbeer outside of the castle, but that was the most of it. Until...Severus found out about the lycanthropy. He was completely shocked and… _so scared of Remus._ Even though Severus was one of the bravest men Remus had ever had the pleasure to meet, being a werewolf was enough of a reason for the snake to leave him. Without a friend and with tons of extra time, Remus devoted himself to studying. He never really thought about it...but it sure was lonely.

 

            Remus spent the whole trip watching the rain hit the window.

 

            “We’re here mate.” Horace stopped the car and got off, opening the door from the backseat. “Come on!” He said, rushed. Remus got out of the car speechless.

 

            They managed to get the dog to the door of Remus’ apartment. They got in and Remus made an effort to actually _lift_ the center table so they could place the dog over the carpet.

 

            “So,” Horace started. With his mood, Remus had to make a huge effort not to roll his eyes. “is your friend late or somethin’?”

 

            _Shit._ “He might.” Remus turned with a smile. “Hey, Horace, don’t you have some sort of dinner tonight?”

 

            “Oh yeah, shit.” Horace patted Remus on the back. “I have to go, man. Will you be okay on your own?”

 

            “Sure, I think I can manage until he comes.”

 

            “Great.” Horace opened the door, “Call me when it’s over, mate.”

 

            “Of course.” Remus smiled. “Bye, Horace.”

 

            “Take care.”

 

            Remus heard the steps down the corridor and immediately kneeled down to the dog. He took out his wand once more and pointed at the creature. Nothing. Whatever was happening really managed to piss Remus off. He sighed and rushed to his trunk. Inside it, various types of potions, all prepared with utmost care in case something… well, in case something happened to him in a full moon. Remus realized that most potions could kill a normal dog like that, so he only took a couple healing ones - the basic ones Madam Ponfrey thought him how to do years ago and some herbs to stop the blood. Anything else he’d find in there would be completely useless in a situation like this.

 

            He didn’t even understand if the potions had any effect on animals whatsoever. Even though he knew the disease wouldn’t kill the animal (as put on the papers) he knew the creature was suffering from terrible pain. He couldn’t watch it any longer. Remus treated the wounds carefully, made sure to give him enough of the potion and wrap the wound with herbs and bandages enough to last at least the entire night.

 

However, something about the way the dog seemed so uncomfortable on the floor made Remus sad, cold and overprotective. So he took the animal in his arms (with a lot of work and almost dropped it a couple times, which is really weird considering he’s a werewolf) and placed it carefully on the sofa. The dog seemed to have a soft expression – somehow.

 

            He called Horace. Told him everything was fine, that his veterinarian friend came up and treated the dog and that it’d probably be better in a week.

 

            “So ya going to keep it?” Horace asked. Remus was taken by complete surprise. He looked at the dog, clutching the phone. “’mean, it’s brilliant, just...well, ya don’t really have any space for a dog in tha’ size.”  

            Remus watched the dog sleeping soundly on the sofa. It’s belly going up and down with his careful breathing. It looked so peaceful. Remus smiled. “I don’t know, really.”

 

            “It’d be good, don’t get me wrong-”

 

            “I know it would.” Remus went to the sofa and patted the dog on the head.

 

            _Lonely, huh?_

 

“I’m keeping him.”

**Author's Note:**

> thank you for reading!  
> i plan on posting 3 times a week :)  
> please leave a comment!


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